Blind mice and bureaucrats

The top comment below Phillip Altman’s open letter demanding an explanation for the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s (TGA) scorning of ivermectin for use against COVID-19 comes from Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy, who writes

… As one of the senior clinical immunologists in Australia, and the only one whose research has focussed on mucosal immunology and host-parasite relationships at mucosal surfaces in man (squarely relevant to Covid-19 infection), I find the current disinformation with respect to early treatment of Covid-19 infection beyond my understanding and without precedent in 50 years of practise. The two principles on which Australia has forged the highest levels of medical practice are neglected: the rule of science, and the rule of the doctor-patient relationship.

The situation that defies logic and sense is that, on one hand, repositioned drugs with Pharma support (and patents) focussed on RNA polymerase such as Remdesivir that has failed repeated randomised controlled trials (RCT’s) yet continues to be used in our intensive care units at $4,000-$5,000 a course, while on the other, safe, cheap and effective repositioned drugs without patents that focus on changing the way cells process infectious agents, with numerous supporting RCT’s, are dismissed …

Again, Phillip’s letter can be read here. And don’t neglect to follow the link to the report he commissioned from independent drug-industry appraisers who concluded the Australian health bureaucracy’s opposition to the cheap, off-patent drug defies all logic.